>
> >Opps! the almond areas are all AHB.
>

Hardly, Bob!  There has only been an occasional find of AFB in the most
southerly almond areas.  An ocassional AHB hive might be tolerated in a vast
Bakersfield almond orchard with few folk around, but could cause serious
issues in most of the orchards that I pollinate in Northern Calif!

>Commercial beekeepers list AHB as last on their list of important issues.


Bob, the problems with hot AHB's, and the need to obtain gentle European
queens always comes up in my discussions with beekeepers, commercial
included, in AHB areas.

I've recently been at both Southern Calif, California, and Texas beekeeping
conferences.  All have expressed interest as to how to mate out gentle stock
in Africanized areas.  The F1 open mated European queens are generally OK,
but by F2, there are too many hot hives.

The long-term solution is clearly to breed for gentle AHB's, and programs
such as the one posted by Waldemar are a look to the future.

Randy Oliver

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